The Rich Richer . . . What a suprise!

In 2004, the richest 1 percent of households – 719,910 of them, with an
average annual income of $326,720 – had 19.8 percent of the entire
nation’s pretax income. That’s up from 17.8 percent a year earlier,
according to a study by University of California-Berkeley economist
Emmanuel Saez.

The
study, titled “The Evolution of Top Incomes,” also found that the
richest one-tenth of 1 percent of Americans – 129,584 households in
2004 – reported income equal to 9.5 percent of national pretax income.

However, median, or midpoint, family income rose only 1.6 percent
between 2001 and 2004, when adjusted for inflation, according to the
Federal Reserve. Median family real net worth – a family’s gross assets
minus liabilities – rose only 1.5 percent during those four years.

Is anyone really surprised by this? You can read the rest of the article here: